Flapping baby birds give clues to origin of flight

How did the earliest birds take wing? Did they fall from trees and learn to flap their forelimbs to avoid crashing? Or did they run along the
ground and pump their "arms" to get aloft?

The answer is buried 150 million years in the past, but a new University of California, Berkeley, study provides a new piece of evidence -- birds have
an innate ability to maneuver in midair, a talent that could have helped their ancestors learn to fly rather than fall from a perch.

The study looked at how baby birds, in this case chukar partridges, pheasant-like game birds from Eurasia, react when they fall upside down.

The researchers, Dennis Evangelista, now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and Robert Dudley, UC Berkeley
professor of integrative biology, found that even ungainly, day-old baby birds successfully use their flapping wings to right themselves when they
fall from a nest, a skill that improves with age until they become coordinated and graceful flyers.

"From day one, post-hatching, 25 percent of these birds can basically roll in midair and land on their feet when you drop them," said Dudley, who
also is affiliated with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Balboa, Panama. "This suggests that even rudimentary wings can serve a very
useful aerodynamic purpose."

Flapping and rolling

The nestlings right themselves by pumping their wings asymmetrically to flip or roll. By nine days after hatching, 100 percent of the birds in the
study had developed coordinated or symmetric flapping, plus body pitch control to right themselves.

"These abilities develop very quickly after hatching, and occur before other previously described uses of the wings, such as for weight support
during wing-assisted incline running," said Evangelista, who emphasized that no chukar chicks were injured in the process. "The results highlight
the importance of maneuvering and control in development and evolution of flight in birds."

Dudley has argued for a decade that midair maneuverability preceded the development of flapping flight and allowed the ancestors of today's birds to
effectively use their forelimbs as rudimentary wings. The new study shows that aerial righting using uncoordinated, asymmetric wing flapping is a very
early development.

Righting behavior probably evolved because "nobody wants to be upside down, and it's particularly dangerous if you're falling in midair," Dudley
said. "But once animals without wings have this innate aerial righting behavior, when wings came along it became easier, quicker and more
efficient."

Dudley noted that some scientists hypothesize that true powered flight originated in the theropod dinosaurs, the ancestors to birds, when they used
symmetric wing flapping while running up an incline, a behavior known as wing-assisted incline running, or WAIR. WAIR proponents argue that the wings
assist running by providing lift, like the spoiler on a race car, and that the ability to steer or maneuver is absent early in evolution.

This study seems to show how the origin of flight got it's start, not from WAIR but from the need to right itself during a fall & try to make a
softer landing.

They tested this with other things too, from lizards and lemurs to ants. They all use various parts of their bodies to avoid hard landings on the
ground. Which makes sense because a hard landing could mean death. Practically every animal that has been tested is able to turn upright, and a great
many, even ones that do not look like fliers, have some ability to steer or maneuver in the air.

It made sense to me, especially when they tested it on other animals like lizards. It is instinct to try to keep yourself from getting too hurt when
falling, especially when it could mean death for some.

How did the earliest birds take wing? Did they fall from trees and learn to flap their forelimbs to avoid crashing? Or did they run along the
ground and pump their "arms" to get aloft?

The answer is buried 150 million years in the past, but a new University of California, Berkeley, study provides a new piece of evidence -- birds have
an innate ability to maneuver in midair, a talent that could have helped their ancestors learn to fly rather than fall from a perch.

The study looked at how baby birds, in this case chukar partridges, pheasant-like game birds from Eurasia, react when they fall upside down.

The researchers, Dennis Evangelista, now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and Robert Dudley, UC Berkeley
professor of integrative biology, found that even ungainly, day-old baby birds successfully use their flapping wings to right themselves when they
fall from a nest, a skill that improves with age until they become coordinated and graceful flyers.

"From day one, post-hatching, 25 percent of these birds can basically roll in midair and land on their feet when you drop them," said Dudley, who
also is affiliated with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Balboa, Panama. "This suggests that even rudimentary wings can serve a very
useful aerodynamic purpose."

Flapping and rolling

The nestlings right themselves by pumping their wings asymmetrically to flip or roll. By nine days after hatching, 100 percent of the birds in the
study had developed coordinated or symmetric flapping, plus body pitch control to right themselves.

"These abilities develop very quickly after hatching, and occur before other previously described uses of the wings, such as for weight support
during wing-assisted incline running," said Evangelista, who emphasized that no chukar chicks were injured in the process. "The results highlight
the importance of maneuvering and control in development and evolution of flight in birds."

Dudley has argued for a decade that midair maneuverability preceded the development of flapping flight and allowed the ancestors of today's birds to
effectively use their forelimbs as rudimentary wings. The new study shows that aerial righting using uncoordinated, asymmetric wing flapping is a very
early development.

Righting behavior probably evolved because "nobody wants to be upside down, and it's particularly dangerous if you're falling in midair," Dudley
said. "But once animals without wings have this innate aerial righting behavior, when wings came along it became easier, quicker and more
efficient."

Dudley noted that some scientists hypothesize that true powered flight originated in the theropod dinosaurs, the ancestors to birds, when they used
symmetric wing flapping while running up an incline, a behavior known as wing-assisted incline running, or WAIR. WAIR proponents argue that the wings
assist running by providing lift, like the spoiler on a race car, and that the ability to steer or maneuver is absent early in evolution.

This study seems to show how the origin of flight got it's start, not from WAIR but from the need to right itself during a fall & try to make a
softer landing.

They tested this with other things too, from lizards and lemurs to ants. They all use various parts of their bodies to avoid hard landings on the
ground. Which makes sense because a hard landing could mean death. Practically every animal that has been tested is able to turn upright, and a great
many, even ones that do not look like fliers, have some ability to steer or maneuver in the air.

So these researchers took baby birds (and apparently other animals) and dropped them from a height on their heads? Calling Dr. Mengele. Did they get
paid for this? I suppose bullies, grown up, can get jobs they enjoy, but this one has overtones of meanness all wrapped up with a bow/excuse called
'testing scientific theory'.

My guess is they used their feet, beak and wings to get up there. As I wasn't alive back then, I can't say for sure.

What is your theory then?

I dont theorise about stuff like this.. My answer is God made them

Whelp closed the book on that issue did we? No need to study and figure these things out, God is the only answer you need huh? So do you also not
theorize on gravity, or do you just say that God is holding us to the earth?

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